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Sept. 29 — The winningest women’s basketball coach in San Diego State University history was
awarded $3.4 million after convincing a jury she was fired in retaliation for whistle-blowing
rather than for allegedly hitting a male assistant during a game (
Burns v. San Diego State Univ., Cal. Super. Ct., No. 37-2014-003408, jury verdict
9/28/16
).

Beth Burns Sept. 28 was granted the award for economic damages, emotional distress
and loss of reputation by a jury composed of five women and seven men, her attorney,
Allison Goddard of the Patterson Law Group in San Diego, told Bloomberg BNA Sept.
29.

The university said it fired Burns for the incident with the assistant coach. Burns
sued in a California trial court alleging she was actually fired in 2013 for complaining
repeatedly about alleged gender inequity in the Division I school’s sports program.
California’s whistle-blower law prohibits punishment of employees who report possible
violations of law, including of such federal laws as Title IX, which mandates equal
treatment of women in institutions that receive federal money.

The central issue was that Burns “was fired for speaking out for female athletes,
concerning issues both big and small,” Goddard said. “This is a great victory for
Ms. Burns and it’s a victory that will resonate throughout the athletic community.
Coaches should know that they’ll be protected if and when they speak out for female
athletes.”

Representatives of the university didn’t immediately respond to Bloomberg BNA’s requests
for comment Sept. 29.

“I learned about this case with a feeling of deja vu,” Ellen Staurowsky, a professor
of sports management at Drexel University who specializes in the business of college
sports and gender equity, told Bloomberg BNA Sept. 29. Staurowsky said that Fresno
State was successfully sued by three female coaches and administrators in recent years.

“Those cases were also about advocating for gender equity and retaliation, with the
results being multimillion-dollar verdicts,” the professor said. “So the fact that
it’s happening at another” California State University “institution is at least interesting
to note.”

Unexpected Termination

Burns was fired in April 2013, after 16 years on the job. Her team had just finished
a season in which it set a school record with 27 wins and won its second straight
Mountain West Conference regular-season title before losing in the second round of
the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. She had four years left on a five-year
contract at the time, according to Sanford Heisler LLP, which also represented the
coach.

San Diego State said the firing was because of some improper physical contact with
a male assistant coach during a heated game. A video of the incident circulated, and
it appears to show Burns hitting the coach’s clipboard on one occasion, then later
striking him on the arm.

The coach alleged in her
complaint that she was actually fired “for her unwavering demands that SDSU put women’s basketball
and men’s athletics on an equal footing.”

Female Coaches in a ‘Double-Bind.’

More than 40 percent of female college coaches feel discriminated against based on
their gender, compared with 29 percent of their male counterparts, according to a
2016
report by the Women’s Sports Foundation. The report also found that most female coaches
said they feared unfair treatment, retaliation and job loss if they expressed Title
IX concerns to department leaders and university administrators.

Staurowsky said that Burns’ case is reflective of those “ongoing challenges” female
coaches face working in a college sports environment.

“One of the things that comes up over and over again is a palpable sense among many
female coaches that they’re very limited in their ability to actually do their job,”
Staurowsky said.

“If you think about what a head coach does, there is an expectation that coaches will
advocate in the best interests of their teams. At the same time, the dynamic is such
that female coaches often work in situations that are inequitable and when they speak
up, they suffer the consequence, sometimes to the point of losing their jobs,” Staurowsky
said. “So it really is a double bind for female coaches who are trying to navigate
those waters, and sadly we see female coaches who are dismissed, in effect, for doing
their jobs.”

Coach: Men’s Basketball, Football Dominate

Some of Burns’ complaints concerned publicity and promotion of respective sports,
Goddard said. “Getting the media relations department to simply provide a media guide
for women’s basketball was a chronic issue—she would have to show up usually and demand
that it be done,” Goddard said.

Burns also complained that female athletes were treated differently with regard to
game-day preparation and the setup of facilities. Additionally, athletic directors
“focused their time, efforts, and priorities on football and men’s basketball, to
the detriment of women’s athletics,” she said in her complaint.

David Noonan and Christopher Wright in San Diego represented SDSU.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hassan A. Kanu in Washington at
hkanu@bna.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Susan J. McGolrick at
smcgolrick@bna.com

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